Senior Systems Architect

Westerndigital; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Westerndigital is seeking a Senior Systems Architect to lead architecture, engineering, and modernization of enterprise compute and infrastructure platforms. The role spans virtualization, Windows and Linux, server infrastructure, automation, and AI-driven platform engineering, with a focus on scalable, secure, and cost-efficient operations.

The candidate will partner across Data Center Operations, Storage, Network, Security, Cloud Engineering, and vendor teams to establish standards and drive

Qualifications

• Senior technical leader for enterprise compute and infrastructure.
• Experience with virtualization, Windows and Linux, and container platforms.
• Ability to drive modernization and automation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical authority for enterprise compute and virtualization.
• Develop architecture standards and reference designs.
• Architect virtualization across Hyper-V, VMware, Nutanix AHV/KVM.
• Define OS deployment, patching, security, and DR standards.
• Lead platform modernization and lifecycle initiatives.
• Drive automation and platform engineering strategy.

Job description

The Senior Systems Architect is a senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, engineering, standardization, and evolution of enterprise compute and infrastructure platforms.

This role requires broad hands‑on expertise across enterprise virtualization, Windows and Linux, server infrastructure, automation, containers, and compute integration with storage and networking. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable developing architecture strategy, evaluating new technologies, creating automation, and troubleshooting complex production issues.

A primary objective of the role is transforming infrastructure operations from manual administration into standardized, automated, policy‑driven platform services. The architect will establish technical standards, lead modernization efforts, reduce operational complexity, and improve reliability, scalability, security, and cost efficiency.

The role works closely with Data Center Operations, Storage Architecture, Network Engineering, Security, Cloud Engineering, Application teams, Manufacturing, and technology vendors.

Key Responsibilities

Infrastructure Architecture & Engineering

• Serve as a senior technical authority for enterprise compute, virtualization, Windows, Linux, container, and server infrastructure.
• Develop architecture standards and reference designs for scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable infrastructure.
• Architect virtualization and compute solutions across platforms such as Hyper-V, VMware, Nutanix AHV/KVM, and emerging technologies.
• Define standards for operating system deployment, configuration, lifecycle management, patching, upgrades, security, high availability, disaster recovery, capacity, and performance.
• Establish enterprise server hardware standards covering compute, memory, accelerators, firmware, network interfaces, power, cooling, and lifecycle management.
• Evaluate new infrastructure technologies through technical assessments, proof-of-concepts, benchmarking, and total-cost-of-ownership analysis.
• Lead complex troubleshooting and root-cause analysis across compute, virtualization, operating systems, storage, networking, and application dependencies.
• Drive platform modernization, consolidation, migration, technology refresh, and infrastructure lifecycle initiatives.

Automation, AI & Platform Engineering

• Lead infrastructure automation and platform‑engineering strategy across compute and related data center technologies.
• Identify repetitive operational activities and replace them with standardized, automated, policy‑driven workflows.
• Develop automation using technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, Git, and CI/CD platforms.
• Apply Infrastructure as Code and software‑engineering practices including source control, reusable modules, peer review, testing, release management, and automated validation.
• Automate provisioning, configuration, patching, upgrades, firmware, compliance, vulnerability remediation, monitoring integration, and infrastructure retirement.
• Integrate automation with enterprise systems including ITSM, CMDB, observability, security, vulnerability management, and asset management.
• Develop self‑service and API-driven infrastructure capabilities that reduce manual administrative work.
• Evaluate and responsibly apply AI, AI agents, and agentic automation to infrastructure engineering, operations, troubleshooting, documentation, and analysis.

Infrastructure Integration

• Partner with the Principal Storage Architect to ensure compute and virtualization platforms integrate effectively with enterprise storage.
• Define compute‑side requirements for storage connectivity, availability, capacity, performance, resiliency, and interoperability.
• Own architecture and standards for server and hypervisor networking, including host connectivity, NIC configuration, virtual networking, resiliency, performance, and storage‑related network traffic.
• Partner with Network Engineering on physical connectivity, VLANs, routing, addressing, network fabrics, and data center network integration.
• Maintain clear ownership boundaries: this role owns server and hypervisor networking; enterprise switching, routing, firewall, and network architecture remain with Network Engineering.
• Work with infrastructure vendors on technology roadmaps, platform supportability, lifecycle planning, technical escalations, and architecture evaluations.

Technical Leadership

• Develop and maintain architecture standards, reference architectures, technology roadmaps, design documentation, and architecture decisions.
• Establish standards for infrastructure reliability, security, observability, lifecycle management, automation, and supportability.
• Evaluate technologies based on scalability, performance, reliability, security, operational complexity, automation potential, and total cost of ownership.
• Partner with Security teams on infrastructure hardening, vulnerability management, compliance, and Zero Trust requirements.
• Present technical strategie